EUGENE, Ore. - The No. 59 ranked University of Oregon
men's tennis team fought until the end, but was defeated by the three-time
defending national champion USC Trojans, 7-0, on Saturday (Mar. 31) at the
Student Tennis Center in Eugene, Ore.

The Ducks fall
to 14-3 while dropping their second conference match in a row.

Oregon will
hit the road next weekend (Apr. 5-7) as they take on Saint Mary's, Stanford and
Cal in three consecutive duals in as many days.

"In some
spots we really played them tough," remarked head coach Nils Schyllander. "We learned a lot from yesterday. The next
step is when we get in those situations against a team like USC we've got to
capitalize because you only get so many opportunities."

The No.1
ranked Trojans (21-0) swept the doubles to start off the dual behind Steve
Johnson and Roberto Quiroz. Johnson and
Quiroz make up the No. 15 ranked doubles tandem in the country. The USC pair knocked off the previously
unbeaten Oregon No. 1 doubles team in junior Jeff Mullen and sophomore Robin Cambier, 8-2. Mullen and Cambier's first
loss of the spring drops them to 15-1 and is just the second loss of the entire
year for the record-breaking Oregon team.

In singles,
USC's ranked players took care of business at the top of the lineup with quick
victories for Johnson over sophomore Alex Rovello, 6-1, 6-1 and Ray Sarmiento
over Cambier, 6-0, 6-1. The Ducks best
chance to nab a point came at court No. 4 where freshman Daniel Sardu took No.
53 Emilio Gomez to a third-set tiebreaker.
After winning the first set, Sardu dropped the next two ultimately
falling to Gomez, 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 10-6.

"We need to
take a day off and get ready for the road," said coach Schyllander. "We're 14-3 and we still have a chance to
make this season really special."

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